Cushioning structure



Feb. 4, 1936. c. H.- HELDENBRAND GUSHIONING STRUCTURE Filed March 6, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 1936- k c. H. HELDENBRAND 2,029,370

cpsnxonme STRUCTURE Filed March 6, 1953 s Sheets-Sheet J T772271? [55/ fifi/derzbaand E J A Feb. 4, 1936. c. H. HELDENBRAND CUSHIONING STRUCTURE 3 Sheets-$heat 3 Filed March 6, 1933 27 5172271? 555/ .Hfibsnbaand Patented Feb. 4, 1936 PATENT OFFICE CUSHIONING STRUCTURE Carl H. Heldenbrand, Akron, Ohio, assignor to The B. F. Goodrich Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 6, 1933, Serial No. 659,654

. 10 Claims.

This invention relates to cushioning structures suitable for use in mattresses, upholsteredlfurnb ture, vehicle upholstery, pillows, cushions and the like. 1

In my application, Serial No. 557,810, filed August 18, 1931, I have described a cushioning body comprising a sheet of resilient material comprising fibers held in reticulated sheet form by an agglutinant and looped in sinuous form upon itself or otherwise arranged to define a plurality of cells with the contacting walls united by the agglutinant. Other suitable material is described in an application of C. W. Leguillon, Serial No. 507,640, filed January 9, 1931, and entitled Upholstery unit and method of mak. 'ing same.

The present invention aims to provide novel cushioning structures comprising such material so arranged as to provide, either with or without other resilient materials, cushioning bodies having reduced resistance to compression and/ or of graduated compressibility and the principal objects .of the invention are to provide maximum resilience with minimum weight, increased control of distortion, increased stability of structure, and economy of material.

Other objects will appear from thefollowing description and the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one arrangement of cushioning material to provide the desired results in a cushion structure. 1

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a modified arrangement of such material for a similar purpose.

Fig. 3 is a similar view of a further modification of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, partly broken away and partly in section, showing a cushion made of laminations of strips of looped fibrous material crossed in successive plies and having the strips extending in one direction of gradu ated widths.

Fig. 5 is a similar view, the strips extending in both directions being graduated in width and defining apertures through the cushion.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a section of. the device .shown in Fig. 5 showing the use of metallic springs in combination with the laminated structure.

Fig. 7 is similar to Fig. 4, but shows the strips of uniform width.

Fig. .8 is a perspective view partly broken away k and partly in section, showing a cushion comprising layers of fibrous sheet material in combination with metallic coil springs distributed throughout the cushion.

Fig. 9 is a similar view showing the coil springs as used to provide increased resistance to com- .pression adjacent one edge of the cushion. 5

Fig. 10 is a similar view showing a single bar spring in place of the coil springs.

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to Fig. 1, the numeral l0 designates a strip formed of sheet material comprising fibers coated with a resilient agglutinant, folded in sinuous folds or loops II or otherwise arranged and united to provide a cellular slab in which the sheet material is united at its points of contact by the agglutinant and the spaces provided between the'united fibers are of such size as to adapt the material'for upholstery cushioning purposes, as described in my, copending application, Serial No. 557,810 and in the application of C. W. Leguillon, Serial No. 507,640, filed January 9, 1931. Such sheet material, as described in said application, Serial No. 557,810, may be quite thin and is preferably made up of loosely matted fibers, such as animal hair or vegetable fibers, a large proportion of the fibers preferably extending longitudinally of the sheet. The fibers are coated and united at their points of contact with a resilient agglutinant which may be such substance as flexible glue, or nitrocellulose compound, but is preferably a rubber composition deposited on the fibers from a rubber cement or from an aqueous dispersion such as latex.

The sheet may be prepared by spreading the fibers in the desired loosely matted arrangement upon a fiat surface, with or without the aid of a carding machine, and coating and uniting the fibers by spraying upon them the coating substance in the form of a liquid, this being preferably a natural or artificial dispersion of rubber containing such vulcanizing agents and other ingredients as may be necessary or desirable to secure in the final vulcanized structure a permanent, resilient union between contacting fibers, and preferably, though not necessarily, a coating of the resilient material upon each fiber throughout its length. After the matted fibers have been sprayed with the coating liquid and dried, the sheet of matted fibers possesses sufficient integrity to facilitate the handling of the sheet, and it may be then submitted to further coating 'of the fibers, as by immersion in a bath of the liquid. After another drying to remove surplus moisture, the sheet of matted and coated fibers in its tacky unvulcanized state is ready to be brought to cellular form.

As .,a modification of the structure shown in- Fig. 1, the cellular strips l may be secured to a foundation sheet l2 of unfolded similar sheet material in spaced relation, as illustrated in Fig 2,

' and a cushion structure built of successive layers of the material with the strips in adjacent layers extending in crossed relation.

A, further modification is shown in Fig. 3., wherein the sheet I3 of fibrous material is formed in bands of alternately facing loops l4, l5 to pro vide bands of cellular material l6, I6, spaced apart by unfolded bands I! of the same sheet.

In the manufacture of'a complete cushion it is contemplated to provide a cover 3| or upholstering cloth or other material as shown in Figs. 4 to and so to arrange the cellular material with or without other resilient materials or devices as to provide different cushioning properties in different parts of the cushion and to provide graduated resiliency without excessive cost. Referring to Fig. 4, which shows a complete cushion formed of sheets of material such as shown in Figs. 1 to 3, it is possible by using strips of various widths extending inone direction of thecushion and of even widths extending in another direction to provide zones of increased resistance to compression where desired, with increased stability of. structure in lateral directions. For instance, it

being desirable to provide greater stability and strips l8, I9, of different widths.

- t compression than those underlying them and. a

75 providing a structure in which the lower part of.

downwardly applied load is met by gradually increasing resistance as deflection under the-load takes place.

This construction may be made without varying the construction of theply material except in the cutting thereof to width, and therefore may be made of material of standardized thickness and construction at a saving in manufacturing expense. By simply cutting the standardized sheet material to widths, and; assembling the strips in determinate arrangement, a cushion having zones of varying compressibility to more properly cushion the load may be readily constructed.

In Fig. 5 a type of construction is shown in which the widths'of the strips are graduated in succeeding plies running in both directions of the cushion. In the form there illustrated the wider strips are shown at the top of the cushion,

strips.

the cushion is more compressible. In this form of the device as well as in the form illustrated in Fig. 4 the strips in successive plies may be staggered or may be arranged in stacks of overlying Where the strips are arranged in overlying vstacks, apertures 32 extending directly through the cushion body at spaced intervals, as shown in Fig. 5, may be provided, and these apertures may be employed to accommodate supplementary cushioning members such as coil springs as illustrated in Fig. 6. In this form the coil springs take part of the load and the fibrous sheet material not 'only assumes its share of the load but actsto hold the springs in prope position. I

In the form shown in Fig. '7 the strips of fibrous material are of equal width and thickness and are so arranged that the spaces between strips are of graduated widths in diiferent layers so as to provide graduated resiliency vertically of the fibrous material comprises a single slab, certain slabs 25, 2-, 21' and 28 being formed with apertures to receive coil springs 29 which may be arranged in rows to provide increased resistance to compression.

As shown in Fig. 9 the springs may be located along a single zone of the cushion, as along the front edge thereof to provide increased resistance in that zone. When the springs are located as shown the sheets of fibrous material may be imperforate and the springs held in place by the covering material.

,A bar spring 30, as shown in Fig. 10, may be used for this purpose instead of the coil springs.

I claim: a

1. An upholstery unit comprising a plurality of resilient members extending in crossed relation through said unit, said members comprising reticulated fibroussheet material formed of resilient fibers held together at their crossing positions to form sheet material looped in sinuous folds, said members being of reduced resilience in zones thereof to provide determinately difierent resistance to compression in different portions of the unit.

2. A cushioning body comprising a plurality of layers of cushioning material, a plurality of said layers comprising spaced strips'ofself-supporting reticulated sheet material heldin cellular form, the strips in each layer being parallel to 'each other and-crossing the strips of adjacent layers.

3. A cushioning body comprising superimposed layers of cushioning material, a plurality of said layers comprising spaced strips of self-supporting reticulated sheet material held in cellular form, the strips in each layer being parallel to each other and crossing the strips of an adjacent layer, the spacing of the strips being so arranged as to provide a body having layers of graduated compressibility.

4. A cushioning body comprising superimposed layers of cushioning material, a plurality of said layers comprising spaced strips of self-supporting reticulated sheet material held in cellular form, the strips in each layer being parallel to each other and crossing the strips of an adjacent layer, the spacing and widthsof the strips being so arranged as to provide a body having layers of graduated compressibility.

5. A cushioning body comprising superimposed layers, of cushioning material, a plurality of said layers comprising "spaced strips of self-supporting reticulated sheet material held in cellular form,

- the strips in each layer being parallel to each other and crossing the strips of an adjacent layer,

the strips being-arranged to provide aligned apertures through a plurality of layers for the purpose of modifying the' cushioning properties of the body.

6. A cushioning body comprising superimposed layers of cushioning material, a plurality of said layers comprising spaced strips of self-supporting reticulated sheet material held in cellular form, the strips in each layer being parallel to each other and crossing the strips of an adjacent layer,

the strips, of successive layers being arranged in varying widths but of uniform thickness and construction to provide difierent degrees of compressibility in difierent parts of the body. a

- 7. A cushioning body comprising superimposed layers of cushioning material, a plurality of said layers comprising spaced strips of self-supporting reticulated sheet material held in cellular form, the strips in each layer being parallel to each other and crossing the strips of an adjacent layer, the strips in successive layers being of uniform width and construction and being so spaced as to provide different degrees of compressibility in'difierent parts of the body.

8. An upholstery unit comprising a body formed of a plurality of layers of reticulated sheet material comprising resilient fibers disposed in open mesh sheet form and held united at their crossing positions to provide the reticulated character of the material, the sheet maand the body being formed with openings extending therethrough in addition to those of the cellular form of the sheet material'and the openmesh character of the latter and affecting the compressibility of the body, and metallic spring structures disposed in said openings.

9. An upholstery unit as defined in claim 8 in which the sheet material is formed in spacedapart groups of cells in each layer to provide the said additional openings between the groups.

10. An upholstery unit as defined in claim 8 in which the sheet material in each layer is formed in spaced-apart strips held in cellular form and providing the said additional openings between the strips and in which the strips of adjacent layers are held in crossed relation.

' CARL H. HELDENBRAND.

terial of.each layer being held in cellular form, 

